EXPLICATING THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL NATURE OF FOOD SECURITY AND IRRIGATION CONTOURS OF THE CONCEPT OF FOOD SECURITY

“collective activity systems move through relatively long cycles of qualitative transformations, the inner contradictions of an activity system are aggravated, some individual participants may begin to question and deviate from its established norms and this can escalate into collaborative envisioning and a deliberate collective change effort from below” (Engeström, 2000b: 526).

The derived understanding is that, repeated iterations of the seven steps (see Figure. 2.7: Expansive Learning Process) form an “expansive cycle or spiral” (Engeström, 2000b: 7), and facilitate the ascension of the activity patterns from the abstract to the concrete. According to Engeström (2010:

5) this “method of grasping the essence of an object by tracing and reproducing theoretically the logic of its development, of its historical formation through the emergence and resolution of its inner contradictions” is abstraction by nature and the “abstraction is step-by-step enriched and transformed into a concrete system of multiple, constantly developing manifestations.”

For instance, in this case of irrigation farmers learning to produce crops, the initial simple idea is then transformed into a complex object, into a new form of practice and via the Expansive Learning Cycle, the object and motive of the activity are reconceptualized to allow for greater possibility and flexibility than in the previous pattern of activity. As the expansive transformation is being accomplished the “object and motive of the activity are reconceptualized to embrace a radically wider horizon of possibilities” (Engeström, 2000b: 526). Engeström (2001: 137) suggests that, the full cycle of expansive transformation must be understood as a “collective journey through the zone of proximal development of the activity”.

2.4 EXPLICATING THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL NATURE OF FOOD SECURITY AND

sufficient supplies of basic food-items.” The United States Department of Agriculture (1995) further defined food security to include aspects of the physical or economic enablement to access sufficient food dietary items to support the productive and healthy well-being of the people.

The FAO (1996) provided a more comprehensive definition that acknowledged food security at individual, household, national and global level. They defined food security as a state when all the people at all the times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and the food preferences for an active and healthy life. This definition was more comprehensive, holistic and acceptable in nature because it incorporated the aspects of physical and economic access to available food.

In the State of Food Insecurity Report (2001) further refined the World Food Summit (1996) definition to include sound access to food security. In their explanation, they described food security as a phenomenon relating to individuals that focus on the nutritional status of the household member. In essence, this motion describes food security in terms of both the consumption and production of food as governed by social values that are just and equitable as well as moral and ethical. This therefore means that food itself must be nutritionally adequate, personally and culturally acceptable and should be obtained in a manner that upholds human dignity (FAO, 2002). In addition, the FAO (1996) further defined food security as the state that exists when people, at all times have a physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and preferences and have an active and healthy life.

Mitsch and Gosselink (2000) further refined the definition of food security to incorporate both physical and economic access to basic household food need. The above definitions entail and include all aspects associated with food availability, accessibility and utilization.

Recent literature has defined food security as a state whereby societies experience social, economic, political and technological capability to have sufficient, nutritive food items at all instances of their well-being (Hendriks & Msaki, 2009). The DoA (2012) defined food security as food self-sufficiency in which people should be able to have food to eat in order to support their human well-being regardless of their age and race. Acha (2014) notes that food security is multidimensional, it has interrelationships with a range of other systems, sectors and issues which

cannot be captured from either a single or a specific indicator alone. In order to understand food security from Acha (2014)’s point of view, there is need to identify and understand the fundamentals that underpin food security namely, availability, accessibility, utilization and stability. These four components of food security are defined in further detail below to scope out the multi-dimensionality of food security concerns:

• Availability: According to the World Food Programme (2009) availability is the existence of food from national and external sources at country level to support domestic use. In essence, this refers to the availability of sufficient capacities of food with suitable qualities from either national production or importations not excluding food aid. Food availability also includes livestock and aquaculture products (Maxwell & Slatter, 2003). In this case, it can be strongly argued that irrigation farming not only increases food availability but also widens the variety of food.

• Accessibility: Food accessibility refers to the capability of families and individuals to acquire food from either their own production or purchases from other sources among them being gifts and aid (Maxwell & Slatter, 2003). The above definition was also adopted and accepted by the World Food Programme (WFP, 2009: 23). Therefore, unlike food availability, food accessibility refers to the process of acquisition of any food items by an individual or family in order to adequately support individuals’ or family’s nutritional requirement for a considerable period of time. In this case better irrigation development can enable a community to have access to food.

• Utilization: The World Bank (2007) together with the FAO (2012) concurs that food utilization refers to food use by an individual or a family to reach a state of nutritional well- being for which all biological requirements are met. In this case when an individual’s digestion and nutrient intake are undermined, and poor health conditions are evident there is lack of food utilization. However, in relation to irrigation farming not all elements of utilization may be directly linked but some are due to other factors such as improper sanitary conditions and inadequate safety net for the community.

• Stability: Frayne et al. (2012) defines food stability as continued food supply and access.

In this case it is important to note that stability is when individuals and households are able to attain food sufficiency despite seasonality, climate variations, price instabilities, political

and economic stresses (Frayne et al., 2012). From the above definition food stability relates to both food availability and accessibility to achieve food self-sufficiency also referred to as household food security (Maxwell & Frankenberger, 1992). In addition, to the on-going discussion on food security definitions, Turton (2000) and Bennett (2001) concur that food security encompasses more than aspects of food availability, access and utilization but goes as far as incorporating aspects of asset creation. Turton (2000) explains that asset creation allows systems to be put in place that ensure sustainability during periods of environmental shocks such as climate change and seasonal shortages that undermines food access.

Regardless of the aforesaid definitional diversity there is consensus that food security is multidimensional in nature. Literature is in consensus that food security can only be achieved, when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs, food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, 2008a). For the purpose of this study food security entails acquiring safe and nutritious foods at all time in order to meet the dietary and food preferences for an active and healthy life without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging and stealing (DoA, 2002: 15).

2.4.1 Global perspectives on the issue of food security

Food security remains a global problem despite the efforts of governments, international organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations and Community-Based Organizations. By 2009, an estimated one billion people in the world suffered from hunger (FAO, 2012). Over the last decades, the total has been increased following the sudden sharp increase in food prices all around the world in 2007 and 2008 and following the subsequent economic crisis of 2008-2009 (FAO, 2012). However, according to the USDA (2012) and Shapouri et al. (2010) by early 2010, the estimated food insecure people decreased to 882 million. The food insecure population includes approximately 15 million people in developed countries, some 42 million Near East and North Africa, 643 million people in the Latin America and Caribbean countries, Asia and the Pacific and lastly, some 215 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The FAO (2012) supported by Shapouri, et al., (2010) argue that food insecurity remains a major global concern since one billion people suffer from starvation and malnutrition, an issue which has also been taken up in the Sustainable

Development Goals (Goal 2). Recently, the numbers of starvation, malnutrition and household food insecurity across the globe have been exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic.

However, according to the FAO, ECA & AUC (2018) report, the trends of food insecurity and undernourished seem to have risen to 821 million people in the world being affected, 36.4 million more than in 2015. Of these 257 million are in Africa, of whom 237 million in sub-Saharan Africa and 20 million in Northern Africa. Comparing to 2015 there are now 34.5 million more undernourished in Africa, 32.6 million more in sub-Saharan Africa, and 1.9 million more in Northern Africa (ibid, 2018: xii). The FAO, ECA & AUC (2020) highlight that there are now approximately, 426 million people experiencing moderate food insecurity, who typically eat low- quality diets and might have been forced at times during the year to also reduce the quantity of food they would normally eat. In 2019, approximately 73 million people, that is approximately 6 million more comparing to year 2018, in 36 countries in Africa, faced acute food insecurity or hunger and required urgent food assistance. Of which 37 million have been succumbed into this food insecurity and hunger situation due to conflicts, while, 26 million were due to climate shocks, and 10 million were due to economic shocks (FAO, ECA & AUC, 2020: xii)

According to the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) (2020) index, the North America region has been leading the world in food security for the third consecutive year and Europe is second, accounting for eight of the top 10 countries. Applying the new methodology that underscores the importance of climate-risk management and its link to food security, Finland tops the list while last year’s leader, Singapore, drops down to 19^th place and Ireland retains its second rank position, while the United States moves to 11^th place. Overall, the GFSI 2020 shows that rising temperatures and global warming have affected the agricultural sector and food system. Highly volatile agriculture production in countries like Australia, Norway and Sweden demonstrates the risk that climate change poses to agriculture and food production. The GFSI further finds out that agricultural production in 49 countries has become more vulnerable comparing to the previous index period. Worse with the current COVID-19 pandemic, the global food system has become more vulnerable (ibid, 2021). Although various stakeholders have responded quickly to lockdown restrictions, the resulting economic fallout has a disproportionate impact on population living below the poverty datum line, who have limited, if any, social protections. In the agricultural

sector, smallholder farmers, the majority of whom reside in rural areas, have suffered significant income losses due to the lockdown restrictions that have prevented them access to markets and interrupted the planting season.

The GFSI argue that even before the COVID-19 began to spread the global food systems were under strain, with many countries struggling to increase productivity, adapt to a worsening climate and reduce environmental harm. In 2020, both Australia and the U.S. were impacted by high levels of land degradation, ranking 81st and 63rd respectively on the land degradation indicator. While, Latin America suffered from irregular rainfall and above-average temperatures between June and July 2019 leading to a second consecutive year of crop failure in the 'Dry Corridor' spanning Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua (ibid, 2021).

2.4.2 Sub-Saharan African perspectives

According to the FAO, ECA & AUC (2018) Africa is unlikely to meet SDG 2 because of the continued prevalence of undernourishment and increasing food insecurity that now affects more than 20 percent of the population on the continent, more than in any other region. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains one of the world’s most food insecure regions. The FAO, ECA & AUC (2018) note that in sub-Saharan Africa, the upward trend of food insecurity appears to be accelerating, and approximately 23 percent of the population is undernourished. In 2010, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the FAO declared that approximately 269 million people were food insecure and on the verge of starvation in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 357 million people in 2012 (FAO, 2012). In 2011 there was a 4.3 percent decline food insecure people in Sub-Saharan Africa. This was because the region’s grain output in 2011 fell below the bumper crop compared to 2010 as several countries including Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, and Sudan saw below average production in 2011. But the number of food insecure people in Sub- Saharan Africa is expected to increase by 15.1 percent over the next decade, to reach 411 million by 2022.

2.4.3 Food security in Southern Africa

Southern Africa is more vulnerable to food insecurity, largely due to climatic variations, the general scarcity of water and recurring droughts in most countries in the region and also because of the recurring civil conflicts in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and of lately the political and economic crisis that took place in Zimbabwe (Acha, 2014). According to SADC FANR (2006) Southern Africa has the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the world and this poses a serious long-term threat to food security in the region. However, Drimie et al. (2008) classifies food insecurity in this region as chronic but also highlighted on areas of transitory food insecurity in which food insecurity occurs on a frequent or seasonal basis like in the countries in the Horn of Africa. According to National Vulnerability Assessment Committees (NVACs) in 2012/13 there were about six million people in the region who were at the risk of food insecurity (NVACs, 2012). And the numbers of food insecurity households increased drastically in 2012 due to the severity of crop failures in many Southern African countries than has been the case in the past three to four years. The FAO (2012) posited that 10 percent of the population of each country in the Southern Africa are food insecure for a period ranging from three to eight months each year.

In 2012, about two million people were declared to be in a food insecurity state by the USAID (2012) in Zimbabwe. This translated to 80 percent of the households and all districts were faced with food insecurity, which blamed on the 33 percent drop in cereal production in the 2012 cropping season as well as the country’s high inflation rate which saw the food prices soar (USAID, 2012). The situation was far from over with the year 2014 declared a national disaster and most rural people were threatened by food insecurity. According to Christopher (2014) in that year (2014) Zimbabwe imported 150 000 tons of maize from South Africa to feed approximately 2 200 000 people in rural areas who were faced with hunger and food insecurity.